


Magnetism

by orphan_account



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: M/M, look how sad this is lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-24
Updated: 2016-05-24
Packaged: 2018-06-10 12:44:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6956920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zeref has issued his declaration of war to Acnologia, the Black Dragon who rivals him as the most powerful being in Earthland. However, there is more to the history of their interactions than these two let on...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Magnetism

The mountain was remote. Isolated. Uncharted.

Off the radar.

The perfect lair for a resting dragon. The last dragon.

However, on this day, one man had managed to hunt down the harbinger of the apocalypse. Fortunately for him, he was likely the only human in Earthland that had nothing to fear, from the Black Dragon.

From Acnologia.

"So."

Even in his human form, Acnologia's voice was a snarl, a feral thing, ready to bite.

"You are lumping me in with humanity, Zeref?"

The pale man standing before the Black Dragon simply smiled his small smile. "I know that you are far more than a mere human being, dragon," he spoke, with a levity ill-befitting off the situation he had brought himself to. "I simply realise that you are just one more enemy to destroy."

"Is that all I am now, Black Mage..." Acnologia spoke with a sinister hiss. "What makes you think you can defeat me? What's to stop me simply wiping your puny empire off the face of this planet?"

"You overestimate yourself. My empire vastly exceeds Ishgar in power. The ants you've been squashing up til now have done nothing but fuel your ego, and blind you to your own mortality."

"Funny you should bring that up, I thought _mortality_ was a touchy subject for you."

Zeref stiffened. "A curse it may be, but it allows me to speak to _you_ without fear, Acnologia."

"You don't fear me, Zeref?"

"There's nothing you can do to me now."

"We'll see," the Black Dragon muttered, and suddenly he was pure speed. Faster than any eye could follow he had risen to his feet and, using the only arm he had, blasted Zeref from his lair with an earth-shattering punch.

 _Weaker_ , Acnologia lamented, _than the arm lost to the Fire Dragon King. But sufficient_ , he conceded, staring off over the cliff edge towards the many cracks in the valleys below where Zeref had been launched. Sniffing the air briskly to catch the scent of his prey, the Black Dragon flew towards Zeref's landing site. The Black Mage had been sent flying hundreds of feet by a mere punch from Acnologia. Zeref's threats were clearly empty.

Before long, Acnologia found Zeref's final destination. He had landed far from the dragon's den, by an otherwise serene riverbank, marred now by the thrown up dirt and stone of Zeref crashing to the ground. Acnologia found the Mage himself laying in a crater, and felt his blood run cold, even though, he realised, he really wasn't all that surprised.

Zeref was in one piece.

Zeref was alive.

And Zeref was smiling.

Brushing himself off, he stood, extracting himself from the human-shaped hole in the ground. He looked pristine, untouched.

"I got my hopes up there for a moment. But I suppose you're only good for killing dragons. I should have known you couldn't destroy _me_. Or were you holding back?" Zeref hummed at the glaring Dragon Slayer, who looked distinctly out of place in this sunny meadow. "For old time's sake?"

"You're _nothing_ to me now, Zeref." Acnologia didn't sound very sure, and he wasn't meeting the Black Mage's eye.

Zeref's smile was a sad thing.

"The day I made you a dragon. That was the end of it, wasn't it?"

" _That_ ," Acnologia corrected, suddenly sending a scornful look at his associate of four hundred years, "was the last time I saw you, before you disappeared without a word, and vanished for centuries." He maintained his gruff exterior, but his bitterness was clear.

"I couldn't stay. You know what happens to the people I-"

" _Love_?" Acnologia suddenly cackled. "Are monsters like you and I even capable of such a thing?"

Zeref's smile didn't falter. He was too far gone, on the cruel earth too long, to let himself be bogged down by emotional baggage.

Natsu. Mavis. Acnologia.

They were all the ones he had loved once. But time changes people.

And four hundred years is a long time.

"I did love you," Zeref spoke softly.

Acnologia growled. "Don't insult me. I was blind to your motives then, but I was just another pawn in your game against the world. Just another Lullaby, another Deliora, another Tartaros. Another one of your _abominations_."

The undertones of regret in Acnologia's speech surprised Zeref. "Is this power not what you wanted? Have you not wiped out the dragons, like you planned?"

"At the cost of becoming one, which wasn't exactly what I wanted."

"You were content with being a Dragon Slayer."

" _Slayer_ , yes. A slayer of those beasts. But now what am I? I'm no better than one of _them_ ," Acnologia lamented, and Zeref sighed.

"You were slaughtering both the dragons and your fellow humans long before I completed your transformation, so I don't want to hear you complaining that I _corrupted_ you."

Acnologia shrugged and said nothing for a time, and Zeref allowed him this silence.

"... Why?"

"Why what?"

" _Why_ ," Acnologia spoke through gritted teeth, fangs bared, "did you leave me? Leave _everything_? You were at the height of your power, the world was on its knees before you, before _us_ -"

"You're more than capable of conquering the world-"

" _Without_ you?" The Dragon King barked a humourless laugh. "What's the point? You were always going to be the Emperor, I was just going to help you there." He watched Zeref, whose impassive face betrayed nothing. "Just imagine if we were still... allied. I could have been one of your Spriggan 12, or even," he laughed bitterly once more, "an Emperor of Alvarez. What a thought..."

"Imagine the scandal," Zeref chuckled, walking calmly towards the Black Dragon, and placing a hand on his dark cheek. Acnologia did not recoil from his touch, a good sign. "The two most powerful and hated men in the world... married. The tabloids would explode."

"We were never meant for that kind of life, you and I," Acnologia sighed. "Nothing as normal as marriage suits us. Being alone I'd the only way for us to live."

"I've been alone ever since we parted ways. Although I have had fleeting moments of companionship. My brother, Mavis, even the Spriggans proved entertaining at times. What about you?"

"Ha. Who would ever come near me and live? My only companions were the wizards that managed to hunt me down, not that they ever lasted long."

Zeref's hand moved from Acnologia's cheek to his muscular chest, a hand on his heart. "Acno... we don't... _have_ to be enemies..."

The Black Dragon considered him, face blank. Then his arm was raised, and Zeref closed his eyes and waited for the Iron Fist attack to separate them again. He was surprised when the hand, with a gentleness none would expect from the Black Dragon of the Apocalypse, clasped the back of Zeref's head and pulled him into the taller man's one-armed embrace. Zeref's face met the ancient robe that barely covered Acnologia's chest, and he closed his eyes as he felt his hair stroked, and the Black Mage wrapped his arms around the waist that was wider than he was, holding on for dear life.

Finally, and also far too soon, the dragon spoke. "Yes, we do. War is the only life I have left to live, Zeref."

"But, you and I don't need to be on opposing sides-"

"Now, now, Zeref, you would have me help you against Ishgar? Give your brother a _chance_ , at least."

Zeref pulled slightly away from the other man, and looked up at him, to find a fanged smirk looking down at him. "There's that arrogant smile I've missed."

"And your signature tears are back as well," Acno shot back, and Zeref laughed, not having realised he was crying, but was quickly silenced when a clawed hand softly wiped away his tears.

"Have some decency, Emperor Spriggan..."

Zeref suddenly couldn't bring himself to look at his first love, as though the dark blue eyes would swallow him if he met them. The last time he had felt love... Natsu would have died if not for Igneel's scarf. The time before that... he had killed Mavis. Zeref absently wondered why his curse hadn't attempted to steal Acnologia from him too, but upon noticing that the vibrant green meadow they were standing in was now a harsh brown, covered in dead grass and fallen leaves, all nearby nature massacred, he realised that Ankhseram's Curse was indeed in full effect, but the Dragon King was immune to it. Zeref let out a choked laugh. _Of course_ he couldn't kill Acnologia. Acnologia didn't have enough human in him left to die. Not even _Ankhseram_ himself could change that.

The Black Dragon was just like Zeref, a monster outside conventional mortality.

Zeref's mind wandered back to the Magical Academy, all those centuries ago. He remembered learning about the magic and science of magnetism.

 _Opposites poles attract each other_ , the old teachers had said. _And identical poles repel each other_.

Identical poles.

So similar.

But unable to ever be together, to ever truly unite.

The Black Mage and the Black Dragon were nothing but identical poles.

Repelling one another, forever.

 _We can never be together_ , Zeref told himself, ignoring the anguish it caused him, using the pain to fuel his power. _Then why... why can't I stop holding him?_

"So..." Acnologia's voice was low, heavy with unidentifiable emotion. "What do we do now?"

 _Leave_ , Zeref's mind screamed. _Leave each other behind, and prepare for war. Prepare to destroy one another, and everything you were._

Zeref ignored it, and for the first time since he defied nature to resurrect his little brother, he listened to his heart instead.

 _His fangs still cut my lips_ , Zeref thought in a strange calm, his first coherent thought since he had leapt upward to capture Acnologia's mouth with his own. He allowed himself to feel amused at the Black Dragon's sloppy kissing. "You're out of practice," he teased breathlessly during the brief respite.

Words seemed to jerk Acnologia back into reality, and his tight hold on Zeref's waist loosened. "We can't. Zeref, you know we can't."

" _Please_."

Hearing the Emperor Spriggan beg threw the Black Dragon off balance.

"One last night, that's all I ask. One last night to just be Zeref and Acno one more time. When the morning comes, I will be the Spriggan Emperor. And you will be the Black Dragon of the Apocalypse. And we will be at war. But for now, the war can wait. For now the world can wait. Just love me one more time before you hate me."

Acnologia didn't hesitate.

Trees, grass, and wildlife for miles around. All dead. Withered and destroyed.

That's what happens when a man afflicted with the Curse of Contradiction loves another so deeply, so suffocatingly.

That's what happens when identical poles attract.


End file.
